


Circuitry of the Heart

by rixsig-writes (rixsig)



Category: Mystic Messenger (Video Game)
Genre: M/M, android and creator au, how to avoid your problems a guide by god seven
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-07-08
Updated: 2017-07-08
Packaged: 2018-11-29 08:01:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,450
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11436591
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rixsig/pseuds/rixsig-writes
Summary: Saeyoung's made everything: toys, robots, military-grade drones and androids. But he's never made anything quite like this.





	Circuitry of the Heart

Wires, wires, wires, come on where did he put those things? They need to be a high enough capacity or else the ‘brain’ of the android won’t get enough power and everything will topple over like a twitchy Jenga tower with poorly calculated body movements, and that would be no fun. Well. It would probably look kind of funny but the novelty would wear off real fast. Hm...maybe he could put a switch in to strangle the power just once or twice just to see…? Nah. That’s a little too mean. Probably.

Saeyoung emerges from under his workstation with a fistful of wires clenched in one hand. He thrusts it toward the ceiling with a cry of victory and stumbles over to the hanging rack where his current creation dangles. It’s shaping up quite nicely if he does say so himself.

It’s just an endoskeleton and a processing unit right now, but both of those things are _really_ impressive. An ultra-lightweight frame to mimic a real human skeleton’s weight with at least ten times the durability--Saeyoung had spent weeks on the computer simulations alone trying to hash out a way to manufacture it--and a processing unit that fires at far above any benchmark ever recorded, both released and unreleased to the public. And okay, maybe gyroidal shapes have been haunting his nightmares and maybe sometimes he’ll space out and mumble in code but look at the result! Definitely worth it.

“What the fuck is that.” says Saeyoung’s brother.

“Saeran!” Saeyoung almost falls over he spins so fast. “I...am working on a super cool super secret project! So shhhhh~”

“Which means your employers don’t know, huh.” Saeran leans against the doorway and squints into the harsh light of the workroom. A mug is steaming in his hands and he takes a sip. “When’s the last time you slept, idiot.”

Saeyoung shrugs, unconcerned. “I’ll sleep in a bit. I just need to...need to…” He trails off, losing his train of thought. What was he going to do next? He probably should have written this stuff down. Oh! But no, that’s right, he hadn’t wanted to leave any sort of documentation lying about, digital or physical, about how to recreate this process. Who knows when—and it is a when, not an if—someone’ll come sniffing around with prying hands?

Saeran decides to let the topic of sleep rest for a moment, squinting at the unfinished guts of the android hanging on the rack.  “So what’s this thing for, anyway? It looks...different from all the stuff you make for work.”

“That’s because it’ll be one-of-a-kind!” Saeyoung announces proudly.

“A one-of-a-kind _what_?” Saeran frowns, taking another sip. “What is it?”

“It’s going to be—” Saeyoung does an impromptu drumroll on the nearest hard surface he can reach and then throws his hands up. “—the best and most handsome man alive!”

A long, long silence.

“If you’re making a fucking sexbot I’m disowning you.” Saeran says flatly.

Saeyoung gasps, offended. “Excuse you, my intentions are pure! I’m making this for _science_.”

“Science.”

“I’ve invented at least three new, groundbreaking techniques working on this beauty alone.” Saeyoung announces proudly. Not that he’ll be sharing them, but…

“And where the hell did you get this awful idea in the first place?”

“Did you know,” Saeyoung responds with complete seriousness, “that they had a contest for the handsomest man in the universe? And that the winner _wasn’t even that handsome_?”

“This is even stupider than I thought it was going to be.” Saeran groans, throwing back the rest of his hot cocoa like it’s the last of a bottle of whiskey. “How are you bi and still gayer than me.”

“It’s okay baby bro,” Saeyoung coos, “one day you’ll grow up and blossom into a beautiful gay flower~”

“...I’m leaving.” Saeran says, already straightening up from the doorframe and turning to go. But then Saeran pauses and makes a pained face, like there’s a question sitting in there that he wants to ask, but also really, really doesn’t.

“What’s that look for, brother dearest?” Saeyoung prods before he can think better of it. And then he does think better of it and abruptly doesn’t want to know.

“Are you—” Saeran starts awkwardly, stops, and then starts again, looking frustrated at himself. “Is this because Yoosung left on that foreign exchange program?”

Oh wow, hey look, it’s that thing Saeyoung’s been adamantly trying to avoid thinking about for the past week. “Whaaaaaat?” Saeyoung draws out. “Well I guess I _am_ trying to fill up my free time! What else am I supposed to do when I can’t pick on my favorite little masochist?”

“Shouldn’t you...call him? Or something?” Saeran ventures with a tinge of disbelief, like he can’t believe _he’s_ the one trying to offer someone social advice. “Friends are supposed to do shit like that, right?”

Saeyoung waves that off with a dismissive and somewhat wobbly hand. “Maybe later~”

Maybe never, who knows.

“Whatever.” Saeran mumbles, giving up. “Go ahead and be a dumbass hermit. We’ll be a fucking perfect matched set that way.”

Saeran leaves for real this time and the moment he closes the door behind him Saeyoung slumps like his strings have been cut, his jaunty expression sloughing off and leaving him looking ten years older. He scrubs both hands over his face and then just leaves them there for a minute. He needs to sleep but he can’t sleep but he should work but he can’t. So he’s doing this instead. For a while. And maybe if he throws himself into enough projects one day he’ll lift his head and Yoosung will be back and not angry at him anymore.

So yeah. He’s the worst. Lower than dirt.

Saeyoung blindly scrambles around for the soldering iron and when his fingers wrap around it he drops his other hand and singlemindedly gets back to work.

 

* * *

 

It’s another few weeks chock full of sleep deprivation and frantic research before Saeyoung has a good handle on how he wants the android’s ‘musculature’ to function and another full week to implement it. Then another week for the skin polymer and another for the synthetic hair and nails, and another for the ocular and aural peripherals, and another for the fine airbrushing to add some delicate and lively color to that artificial skin. When everything is finished it—he—looks almost too good to be real, but too real to deny. Just the perfect amount of impossible.

Saeran stares at it. “I hate that I know that this is what you’re into. What the hell is with his haircut?”

“I couldn’t decide whether I wanted him to have long or short hair.” Saeyoung admits.

Saeran’s silence and wrinkled nose tells him what he thinks of that answer. “...I still don’t understand how it manages to look alright on him.”

“Right?” Saeyoung says, delighted.

“So when are you, what, activating him or whatever?”

Saeyoung grins widely at Saeran’s feigned disinterest. “Oh my, has the critic been converted? Is my little pet project not so dumb anymore? You want to see the handsome man move~?”

“Shut up.” Saeran rolls his eyes. “I just want to know when you’re finally going to be done with this. You’ve been working on it forever.”

“And I’ll be working on it just a little more!” Saeyoung announces cheerfully. “I still need to hammer out the more finicky android brain details. I’ll finally be going back to my roots with coding, coding, and! More!! Coding!!!”

“I thought you were making the most handsome man alive. Why does he need a brain?” Saeran smirks.

“What?! Don’t you know that at least 50% of a man’s handsomeness is in how charming he is?!” Saeyoung exclaims. “He can’t be the handsomest man alive without a handsome brain!”

“...If this thing ends up acting just like you I’m double disowning you.” Saeran mutters darkly.

 

* * *

 

It takes another month to come up with a version of the android’s operating kernel that Saeyoung can be satisfied with, even with all the templates of the previous androids he’s worked on at his disposal. But this isn’t some mere military drone or stiffly robotic government servant. This is a work of _art_. To be truly charming this android needs to detect emotion and learn to respond accordingly. Or stripped down to the most essential problem: this android needs to be able to learn. On the fly. With minimal outside input.

It’s something a lot of really smart people have determined to be impossible in this day and age. But god, an impossible task is the perfect thing, the absolute perfect thing to make Saeyoung think about nothing else.

 

* * *

 

“So it’s finally done.”

“Yep! Well, mostly.” Saeyoung rubs his hands vigorously together and then claps twice, pacing in a few tight circles before coming to a stop right in front of the finished android. Saeran glares at him for the noise but he’s obviously too curious to interrupt, so Saeyoung grins, steadies his nerves, and flicks the exposed switch before slapping the panel closed and wiggling the self-sealing polymer skin back over it.

For a long second nothing seems to happen. Then everything happens at once.

The android’s eyes snap open and it starts twitching irregularly, great spasms that jerk its body around so hard it almost falls off the table Saeyoung laid him out on. Saeran jumps and retreats a few steps back, eyes wide.

“What’s wrong with it?!”

“Nothing!” Saeyoung squints at his creation. “Or...nothing serious?” He answers slowly. “It’s doing its processing and compiling for first boot-up but trying to move at the same time.” A disbelieving smile starts tugging at his mouth. “But it doesn’t have enough threads to run that many things at once.”

“So your android is an idiot too.” Saeran snorts, still looking a little freaked out.

“No, he’s a _go-getter_.” Saeyoung laughs. “Or maybe just really impatient.” He clears his throat and recites a long alphanumeric sequence, cutting the android’s erratic movements cold. “There we go. Now he won’t be able to sabotage himself on accident."

The android now lies stone still, red eyes open wide and unresponsive. A whole five minutes pass that way, then ten, and while that should be boring to watch neither of the brothers take their eyes off of the android for an instant. Saeyoung transfixed from anticipation and Saeran from wariness.

“How will you know when it’s done?” Saeran finally murmurs.

“Oh, I think you might find out soon~” Saeyoung sing-songs.

“What does that—”

“START UP PROTOCOL COMPLETED. INITIATE?”

Saeran jumps again, startled, and scowls at Saeyoung. “Fuck you.” Saeran glances at the android again, still a little spooked. “It didn’t even move its mouth…”

“Well, no, it doesn’t have to. Android, remember?”

“INITIATE?”

“I’m swooning at his charm already.” Saeran deadpans.

“Hey, don’t judge him based on the boot-up program!” Saeyoung steps closer to the android, examining the open eyes. “Actually don’t judge him at all at first. He’s not going to know much for a while.”

“INITIATE?”

“Yeah, yeah, hold your horses, you beautiful piece of work you.” Saeyoung combs over every inch of the android again. He’s already checked and double checked and triple checked everything but he can’t fight the impulse to check just one more time.

Then he recites another long alphanumeric string and the android slowly, slowly sits up, rising directly at the waist with no help from his arms at all. It doesn’t blink.

“God, that’s fucking creepy.” Saeran says, staring again, though he’s smiling a little now.

“INITIATE?”

“Alright!” Saeyoung claps again. “User identification: God Seven, all privileges active. Initiate is a yes.”

“COMMAND ACCEPTED.” the android says. It stays silent for a minute or two, then in a much softer voice, “Please give a designation to this unit.”

Now this is step one of the real test, where Saeyoung will either begin to see the fruits of his efforts or have to accept this as just a very good waste of time, an excellent and temporary distraction.

“Advisement one: ‘Name’ is preferred over ‘designation’ unless technical terms are specifically requested or implied.” Saeyoung says carefully, making sure to enunciate every word. “Advisement two: when referring to yourself use first person pronouns unless otherwise requested or implied.”

Another minute of silence, unblinking eyes unmoving on Saeyoung’s face. Saeyoung holds his breath. Come on, come on, come on...

“Please give me a name.” The android says.

“Holy shit.” Saeran breathes.

“Invalid user, name rejected.”

Saeyoung howls with laughter. “Ohohohoooo my god. ‘Yes, hello, my name’s Holy Shit. What’s yours?’ Don’t have much of a knack for this do you, baby bro?”

Saeran shoves at him. “Like you’re so great at it. You named your last android Zoom Zoom.”

“Hey, that was just an informal designation for manufacturer’s ears only!” Saeyoung protests. “And excuse you, I already have a good one picked out! I’m prepared.”

“Please confirm. Would you like to set my name as ‘Ohohohoooo my god—”

“No, no!” Saeyoung laughs, waving his hands frantically. “Set your name as ‘Hyun Ryu.’”

“Acknowledged.”

“Wow, that actually sounds like a real person’s name.” Saeran says, raising his eyebrows. “How far do you think this tin man’s going to go?”

“I don’t know.” Saeyoung shrugs. “I figure if I can fool a few people and have some fun it’ll be well worth it~”

“Idiot. But I don’t know why I expected anything different…” Saeran scoffs. “You’re the only person on the planet who would waste three months and millions of dollars worth of materials on a practical joke." 

“My name is Hyun Ryu.”

Both brothers freeze and look back at the android.

“Um. Yeah! Good job, you got it~!” Saeyoung says. He hasn’t coached the android through anything at all other than the name and pronoun thing, so he’s intensely curious what it might be ‘learning’ from the environment it’s perceiving right now. What does it mark as important? Saeyoung put in initial guidelines but left them alterable to the internal systems, so it’s all out of his hands now. For all he knows the android will mess with them poorly and the whole kernel will crumble like a castle made of sand.

“Yes, hello, you name.” The android stops. A beat passes and then it starts again. “Yours?” Another beat and then, “Yes, hello, my name’s Hyun Ryu. What’s yours?”

Saeyoung can hear Saeran inhale sharply and Saeyoung takes a deep breath in, a deep breath out. Suddenly this feels incredibly real. Terrifyingly real. Excitingly real. Is this real? Is this really working? Even just a little bit? Wow.

“Hey, Hyun. My name’s Saeyoung. Nice to meet you.”

**Author's Note:**

> hit me up @rixsig_writes on twitter!


End file.
